Sermon and Worship Resources

Antonyms: keep, claim, continue, stick by, self-control, power through, achieve, defend, bear, hope, acquire, quick visit, adopt, continue along, adhere, remain, pursue, support, take up, keep up, reuse, advocate, stay, persevere, cherish, keep going, carry on

Showing 4401 to 4425 of 4934 results

4401. Easter Sunday

John 20:1-9, John 20:10-18

Sermon Aid

Wayne B. Keller

Liturgical Color: White Theme Jesus' resurrection; always include also the theme of Jesus' crucifixion. Many Easter worshipers, including members of the congregation, want to reap the benefits of Christianity without the demands of Christ; they want life without death, resurrection without crucifixion. You may want to print these two quotes on the order of worship: 1. "No one experiences resurrection in Christ until first experiencing crucifixion in Christ." W.H.K. 2. "The Cross that called Jesus to a ...

4402. Marked In An Empty Tomb -- The Cross Is Still There

Sermon

George Bass

“The other women with them (Mary Magdala, Joanna, and Mary, the Mother of James) also told the apostles (about their experience at the Tomb), but this story of theirs seemed pure nonsense, and they did not believe them.” Luke 24:11 Yes, the cross is still there upon our foreheads and in our hearts. Easter, more than anything else, assures us of that. Because we believe in both Jesus’ death and resurrection, we declare: “Christ is risen! He is risen indeed!” Our Lord’s resurrection is at the heart of the ...

4403. An Overwhelming Promise

Eulogy

Joe Barone

Isaiah 55:6-13, Jeremiah 31:31-33 Hebrews 9:24-28 and Romans 8:1-4 Sometimes the sweep and power of God’s promises in the Bible almost overwhelm me. Just stop and think about some of them. First there’s the rainbow. “This is the sign of the covenant which I have established between me and all flesh that is upon the earth,” God tells Noah in Genesis 9:17. When we look at the rainbow, we are to know that God is God, and God is faithful. From there the promise goes to Abraham and his descendants, then to ...

4404. Charity and the Great Adventure

Gen 1 & 2:4-25

Children's Sermon

Louise Ulmer

A parable - suitable for a more curriculum based setting with smaller children and not the children's sermon. Long ago when the earth and stars were new, a great king ruled all the worlds of all the world. He lived in a magnificent city beyond the clouds. One day as the king stood looking out his palace window, he watched his many children playing in the Celestial Gardens. "What wonderful children I have," he said. "Each one is beautiful. Each one is perfect." Then the king noticed a little girl named ...

4405. Beasts, Saints and Chaos

Daniel 7:15-28, Daniel 7:1-14

Sermon

Paul W. F. Harms

"But the saints of the Most High shall receive the kingly power and shall retain it for ever, for ever and ever." But we are not there yet; neither were the people of the text. Because they were not yet there and we are not yet there, we gather here to reflect that some are already there but the rest of us are not yet there. We have enough trouble without the troublesome word "saint" - "the saints of the Most High shall receive the kingly power and shall retain it for ever, for ever and ever." "But I'm no ...

4406. And Who is my Neighbor?

Luke 10:25-37

Sermon

Johnny Dean

The final Episode of the Seinfeld show which aired at the end of the 1998 TV season received a lot of flack for being disappointing. Perhaps the reason so many were disappointed in the show is because it moralized. It wasn’t very funny; in fact, it was self deprecating. All of the characters receive a one year sentence for failing to help someone who was robbed. What happens is this: Jerry plays a comedian on the show and he has just received a contract from NBC to do a sitcom and the network is flying ...

4407. Christ Has Set Us Free

John 8:31-41

Sermon

In 1493 a history of the world was published in Germany, just a year after Columbus discovered America. The book didn’t end with that; in fact it didn’t even mention it. It did end with a drawing of the Last Day, showing Christ as Judge sitting upon a rainbow. There was a lily in his right ear to symbolize the redeemed whom the angels were ushering into paradise. There was a sword in his left ear to represent the doom of the damned whom the devils were dragging by the hair from their graves and throwing ...

4408. Cross Work

Matthew 5:27-30

Sermon

George Bass

Jesus might have been loving, kind, and good, but he wasn’t very practical. As he closes out this first section of the Sermon on the Mount, it is pure Gospel we hear today that supercedes the law of last week. And Jesus shows us just how impractical the Gospel actually is. He instructs the disciples and us, to... ...offer no resistance to wicked people who might hurt or offend you; ...turn the other cheek if someone hits you on one side of the face; ...give your coat as well as your shirt to anyone who ...

4409. A Faith To Live By John D. Mauney, Jr.

Deuteronomy 4:32-40

Sermon

"Know therefore this day, and lay it to your heart, that the Lord is God in the heaven above and on the earth beneath; there is no other." (Deuteronomy 4:39) We live in a land of plenty. A rich and sophisticated people, we are a nation of greater wealth and technological accomplishment than the world has ever known. But still there are those among us who are poverty-stricken. We are faced with the age-old problem of the "haves" and the "have-nots." And, of course, there are many different types of poverty ...

4410. Christmas 1

Psalm 111:1-10, Isaiah 63:7--64:12, Galatians 3:26--4:7, Matthew 2:13-18, Matthew 2:19-23

Sermon Aid

THEOLOGICAL CLUE The liturgical function of this Sunday is that, practically, it becomes a kind of Octave of Christmas. As the first Sunday in the twelve days of the Christmas season, it continues the celebration of Jesus' incarnation with more of the details of the Christmas story, and encourages the church to worship the Messiah who has come in the name of the Lord. The homiletical clue, from the very nature of the Sunday's purpose and readings, is to tell the story more completely and with more depth, ...

4411. Ash Wednesday

Joel 2:12-17, 2 Corinthians 5:11--6:2, Matthew 6:1-4, Matthew 6:16-18, Matthew 6:19-24

Sermon Aid

THEOLOGICAL CLUE The title of this day, Ash Wednesday - the rite for the imposition of ashes on the foreheads of the penitents and the central proclamation of the day, "You are dust, and unto dust you will return" provide the theological clue for preaching during Lent and Easter. Every person who is born here on the earth will, sooner or later, be claimed by death. The Genesis 3 story is certainly true in this respect; no one is exempt from death - even Jesus, the very Son of God, had to die, partly ...

4412. Maundy Thursday

John 13:1-17, 1 Corinthians 11:17-34, Exodus 12:1-30

Sermon Aid

THEOLOGICAL CLUE Thursday of Holy Week originally was celebrated as a feast of reconciliation, long ago when sin was taken seriously by the church; the penitents, who were excluded from the congregation during Lent were brought back and joined the congregation in the sacrament. They would come to the closed door of the church, knock and seek entrance, only to be turned away by an official of the congregation. They returned a second time, knocked and were turned away again. The third time, the bishop went ...

4413. Celebrating with Jesus

Luke 5:33-39

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

Someone told me recently about a Methodist man who lived in a traditional Catholic neighborhood. Every Friday the Catholics were driven to distraction because, while they were sadly eating fish, the Methodist was outside grilling steaks. That wonderful aroma from the grill was bothersome to the Catholics. They worked on the Methodist, attempting to convert him. Finally they succeeded. They took the Methodist to the priest who sprinkled Holy Water on the man while saying, "Born a Methodist, raised a ...

4414. Returning: Real or Ruse?

Hosea 5:1-15

Sermon

Barbara Brokhoff

"I will return again to my place, until they acknowledge their guilt and seek my face, and in their distress they see me, saying, ‘Come, let us return to the Lord; for he has torn, that he may heal us; he has stricken, and he will bind us up.’ " A woman was filling out an employment application. When she came to the line marked "age," she hesitated a long time. Finally, the personnel manager leaned across his desk and whispered to her, "The longer you wait, the worse it gets!" That’s true of repentance and ...

4415. He Bore Our Sins

2 Corinthians 5:11--6:2

Sermon

Dennis Kastens

Every year during Lent, the role of Christ bearing his cross to Calvary is re-enacted in the village of Sartene, Corsica. This has been going on ever since the Middle Ages, and it always draws a big crowd of villagers and thousands of tourists who come for the occasion. Time magazine, when reporting on one of the more recent episodes, called it "one of the world’s most brutally powerful Holy Week processions." And the report was a graphic description of what happened: A grotesque lump of a man ... barefoot ...

4416. The Witch of Endor

1 Samuel 28:1-25

Sermon

Warren Thomas Smith

We have been thrilled and enchanted by the weird conversation of the three sisters on the gloomy heath in ancient Scotland: When shall we three meet again In thunder, lightening, or in rain? When the hurlyburly’s done, When the battle’s lost and won, That will be ere the set of sun. Where the place? Upon the heath There to meet with Macbeth.1 Later in the play we have the incantation and recipe for the brew which will cast a spell over the Scottish Thane: Double, double toil and trouble; Fire burn and ...

4417. When The Cheering Stopped

Matthew 21:1-11

Sermon

Brett Blair

Some years ago a book was written by a noted American historian entitled “When The Cheering Stopped.” It was the story of President Woodrow Wilson and the events leading up to and following WWI. When that war was over Wilson was an international hero, There was a great spirit of optimism abroad, and people actually believed that the last war had been fought and the world had been made safe for democracy. On his first visit to Paris after the war Wilson was greeted by cheering mobs. He was actually more ...

4418. It’s About Time!

Drama

Sarah Walton Miller

You will recognize the many scriptures on which this skit is based. Suggestion: if this is done in a study group, get some good concordances. Let the students search out the scriptures used. They all relate to time. At stage back, on risers or other levels, are three characters: TIME PAST, TIME PRESENT, TIME FUTURE. Perhaps they are similarly dressed. Downstage left are two high stools. On one is CHRISTIAN-WITH-EXCUSES, on the other NON-CHRISTIAN. At downstage right is a small lectern for the READER. ...

4419. When The Word Became Flesh

John 1:1-18

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

Here we are in the heart of the Advent season. Most churches are preparing for Christmas pageants of various kinds. Usually children are involved, and therefore things don't always go according to script. In one pageant I heard about, the innkeeper of Bethlehem was played by a boy named Ralph. He had very much wanted to play the part of Joseph, but that part was given to someone else. Ralph decided to take some revenge. On the day of the play, the fellowship hall was filled to capacity. Mary and Joseph ...

4420. Servant Worship

Psalm 116:1-19

Sermon

Donald Macleod

The season of Lent is drawing now to a close. On Ash Wednesday we said that Lent is not primarily a period when we "don’t do this" or "don’t do that;" rather it is intended to be a time of self-denial and self-discipline during which we tone up the moral fiber of our inner being and when we place greater emphasis upon the spiritual and less upon the material. As someone has said, "It is a matter of adding as well as subtracting." If we have been serious at all, our aim during the past few weeks should have ...

4421. Readying the Twelve for Mission

Acts 1:12-26

Sermon

Donald Macleod

After two such unprecedented events as Resurrection and Ascension, certainly this question is in order: what can God do for an encore? Or, one might simply exclaim: what a hard act to follow! The eleven disciples left Mt. Olivet and returned to Jerusalem, as Jesus had commanded them. Naturally, they sought out the Upper Room, a place filled with memories that were now sacred. Other faithful persons joined them until they numbered about a hundred and twenty, (v. 15) including a number of women with Mary and ...

4422. Beyond Ambiguity

Isaiah 42:1-9

Illustration

Larry Powell

In the 1500s, there lived a "prophet" named Nostradamus who upheld the Copernican theory that the world is round and circles the sun more than one hundred years before Galileo was prosecuted for the same belief. He was also widely known as a healer, a dabbler in the occult, and predictor of events far into the future. A present day book, The Prophecies of Nostradamus, purports to show that he predicted such specific events as the assassination of John F. Kennnedy, Hitler’s rise to power, the Blockade of ...

4423. Jesus Christ, the Truth

Drama

Curt M. Joseph

Characters: Caiaphas - the High Priest; insistent, thinks he has Pilate where he wants him. Pilate - governor of Judea; an ambitious man, a just man, who struggles between his sense of justice and his political ambitions. Guard - typical Roman soldier. Claudia Procula - wife of Pilate; sensitive, caring, and very supportive of her husband. Ruth - a Jewess who serves as the handmaid of Claudia Procula. The scene opens with Caiaphas standing outside the communion rail, symbolic of his refusal to enter into a ...

4424. How Can We Live Wisely?

Job 26:1--31:40

Sermon

Edward Chinn

When you think of Christ, do you see him as an idealist or as a realist? There are those who see him as primarily an idealist because he talked about love in an unlovely world. He talked about forgiveness in an unforgiving world. He talked about goodness in an evil world. He talked about a loving heavenly Father in a world of earthquakes, fire, flood, and other natural disasters. How then do you see Christ? Was he an idealist or was he a realist? I believe there is a neglected side to Christ’s personality ...

4425. The Crisis of Commitment

1 Corinthians 11:17-34

Sermon

Louis H. Valbracht

In a few moments, we will commune with our Lord at the Table that He has prepared for us. His command is simple and direct: "This do." But there is an added admonition. It is repeated four times in the accounts of the institution of this Sacrament, and so, certainly, it must be important: "This do in remembrance of me." To eat this bread and drink this cup without remembering, remembering the terrible price that was paid for it, is to eat and drink it unworthily. But can we remember? In that multitude ...

Showing results